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Frederick Douglass Sacrifice

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Frederick Douglass once said, “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass, he tells his story on enslavement and the journey to freedom. Part of this journey includes Douglass’s escapades of learning to read and write as well as his fight and victory over his slaveholder Mr. Covey. Learning to read and write and his victory over Mr. Covey were significant in Douglass’s journey to freedom because they bestowed an original determination and clarity to escape upon him, and brought his fiery desire to escape back when it was once burnt out. Learning to read and write was a significant moment because it made Frederick Douglass clear on the realization that he needed to escape, and was determined to do so. …show more content…

Covey was significant because it brought his desire to escape back when he himself couldn’t. Before his fight, Frederick Douglass was working all day, depressed, and broken. He had no outlet but to pour his complaints out to God. Douglass states, “You are loosened from your moorings, and are free; I am fast in my chains, and am a slave! You move merrily before the gentle gale and I sadly before the bloody whip! (79). Here, Douglass tells God that he is defeated. He questions if he will ever be able to escape. After this, Douglass was given a root and told that it would protect him. So, he seized the opportunity and fought back against Mr. Covey when he was to be whipped. Frederick Douglass states, “It rekindled the few expiring embers of freedom… it recalled the departed self-confidence, and inspired me again with a determination to be free. It was a glorious resurrection from the tomb of slavery, to the heaven of freedom” (85). Before the fight, Douglass had given up. He was no longer determined. Afterwards, he had a new sense of life. His determination to escape was renewed. He felt unstoppable. Without this fight, he may have never escaped

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The story “ Battle with Mr. Covey “ basically talks about Frederick Douglass life as an slave. It also talks about the things he had to go through and see. He also witnessed that he saw and he stated that it was the lowest point in his life. Douglass went through a lot of beatings that he got from Mr. Covey. This relates to his life because it helps us understand what he really went through as becoming an slave.

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Frederick Douglass published two similar versions of his fight with the ‘slave-breaker’ Edward Covey in the tenth chapter of his The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, and in the seventeenth chapter of My Bondage and My Freedom. By comparing the two accounts it is possible to see an evolution of his thoughts on abolishing slavery and person hood which occurred in the years which transpired between the two works, 1845 and 1855. In the first account which Douglass wrote at around the age of 27 he narrates a physical confrontation where he refuses to allow himself to be whipped. Douglass struggles for two hours with Covey and also fights off Covey’s cousin at the same time.

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Even though Douglass bounced from master to master he would never give up on searching for a loop whole that would somehow lead him to his true desire, his dream, his freedom. Fredrick tried to escape certain times but keeps on failing but that did not stop him to look for the key to his dream, to his desire, to his freedom. After several attempts and failure, his wish was finally granted he got his ticket to freedom also known as New York City but his journey does not end here but this was just the beginning. Fredrick tasted freedom as he desired and his dream did get granted but even though he was free and is living his long life dream he discovered that his journey is not over that this is not his final epiphany, although he got his freedom he knew that with him living freely there were other people suffering from the harshness and cruelty of

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His beatings and lack of food were only part of his miserable daily life. Eventually Douglass was able to successfully escape this life and vowed to forever actively support the equality of all

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Fredrick Dougless says to five white little boys,” you will be free as soon as you are 21, but I am a slave for life”. Fredrick Douglass was born February 1818, enslaved. He was young and wanted to learn how to read and write for his benefit, so he did everything he could to do so. Only seven years after he escaped Douglass wrote three autobiographies, one of them being Narrative of the Life of FrederickDouglass. Learning to read and write and his victory over Mr. Covey was significant because if it wasn't for his need to read and write he would possibly have tried to escape earlier due to the fact that there would be nothing stopping him and winning sparked power and motivation in him.

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Covey’s constant abuse nearly broke the 16-year-old Douglass psychologically. Eventually, however, Douglass fought back, in a scene rendered powerfully in his first autobiography”(Douglass,3).He tried to escaped twice before he finally succeed. Douglas fought for his freedom.

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Frederick Douglass’s Hope for Freedom Hope and fear, two contradictory emotions that influence us all, convicted Frederick Douglass to choose life over death, light over darkness, and freedom over sin. Douglass, in Chapter ten, pages thirty-seven through thirty-nine, of the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, utilizes various rhetorical techniques and tone shifts to convey his desperation to find hope in this time of misery and suffering. Mr. Covey, who Douglass has been sent to by his master to be broken, has succeeded in nearly tearing all of Douglass’s dreams of freedom away from him. To expound on his desires to escape, Douglass presents boats as something that induces joy to most but compels slaves to feel terror. Given the multiple uses of repetition, antithesis, indirect tone shifts, and various other rhetorical techniques, we can see Douglass relaying to his audience the hardships of slavery through ethos, the disheartening times that slavery brings, and his breakthrough of determination to obtain freedom.

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In “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”, Douglass narrates in detail the oppressions he went through as a slave before winning his freedom. In the narrative, Douglass gives a picture about the humiliation, brutality, and pain that slaves go through. We can evidently see that Douglass does not want to describe only his life, but he uses his personal experiences and life story as a tool to rise against slavery. He uses his personal life story to argue against common myths that were used to justify the act of slavery. Douglass invalidated common justification for slavery like religion, economic argument and color with his life story through his experiences torture, separation, and illiteracy, and he urged for the end of slavery.

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However, when he is sent to work for a temporary master, not only is his physical body shattered, but as his determination and his spirit. Nevertheless, one day. when Douglass finds the will to fight back, he finds a new, stronger sense of strength that continues to thrive within him from that moment forward. The altercation between Douglass and the temporary slave master marks a new beginning for Frederick Douglass as a slave and also as a

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Resolving to fight back against Covey thrusts Douglass into manhood and is the first instance of justified violence seen in the novel: “It rekindled the few expiring embers of freedom, and revived within me a sense of my own manhood...and inspired me again with a determination to be free” (68). Although up to this point the violence described was portrayed as completely unjust and terrible, here the reader is to understand that, for the slave, this type of violence may not only be necessary, but completely justified when attempting to gain

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In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass's battle with his master Covey is a turning point in his career as a slave in that he resolves to no longer be docile and subservient as a slave. In fighting back against Covey, Douglass frees his mind from the psychological effects of slavery. Douglass's battle with Covey marks the end of Douglass being obedient and not questioning the word of authority like he was brought up to do. Douglass vows that "the white man who expected to succeed in whipping, must also succeed in killing me." (Douglass, 83) By refusing the role of an obedient slave, Douglass also refuses the slave mindset and liberates himself.

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Douglass managed to overcome the maltreatment of his wretched slave owners through the eventual attainment of freedom. The injustice imposed upon the African-American slaves by their owners was the crux of Douglass’s motivation to escape this inhumane life. Adolescents in today’s society could use Frederick’s determination as an example of moving forward to better oneself or one’s situation regardless of

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When talking about Mr. Covey, who displayed his terrible nature in his reactions to the minor inconveniences Douglass cost him, Douglass focuses most on Covey’s lying about his religiousness. At the start of Douglass’s comments on Covey’s lying,

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Mr. Covey abused his power over Douglass since slaves were considered property, and he “could do what he pleased,” however the root rendered Mr. Covey powerless by changing Douglass’s perspective and helped reveal

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It rekindled the few expiring embers of freedom, and revived within me a sense of my own manhood” (Douglass 43). The battle between Mr. Covey and Douglass shows the primitive and subjective nature of the laws in slave-holding communities. Instead of there being law and regulation as there is in the rest of the United States, this battle proves that violence is rampant in the plantations. This scene furthers Douglass’ association between slavery and

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